Many attempts have been made to formulate fat-continuous low fat spread products. Amongst the various reasons why such products are desired is the wish to reduce the caloric content of the spread and other dietetic considerations and to a minor extent the wish to lower the production costs, in particular by reducing the raw material costs.
A substance that has widely been applied as a fat extender is water. This use of water has, for example, led to the introduction of so-called halvarines. If relatively high levels of water are used, often thickening agents and/or gelling agents are used for avoiding adverse effects of the high water level.
For example EP 298 561 (Unilever N.Y.) describes the preparation of edible plastic dispersions not having a continuous fat phase, said composition including at least two gelling agents forming two gel-forming compositions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,916 (Kuniaki Inayoshi et al) discloses a "whipped oily flavor" containing more than 5% of oil with a 100% overrun which can be in the form of W/O/W-emulsion containing at least 7% of a low-sweet saccharide as e.g. maltodextrin so as to provide a freeze resistance to the final product and an emulsifier like polyglycerol ricinoleic acid ester. From the fact that the intermediate emulsion is whipped to an overrun of about 100% it can be deduced that the intermediate emulsion before whipping must be low viscous and not in the form of a plastic gel which teaches away from the use of a gelling maltodextrin above its critical concentration. Also the fact that maltodextrin is used as a protection against freezing suggests strongly that the maltodextrin used has a low average molecular weight and consequently a high DE (Dextrose Equivalent) because this results in a higher freezing point depression at a given weight quantity of low-sweet sugar. Consequently U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,916 points away from the use in a W/O/W emulsion of a gelling hydrolysed starch c.q. maltodextrin with a higher average molecular weight and lower DE i.e. from about 1-6 and above its critical gelling concentration.